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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Fiery Roasted Red Pepper Salsa

Since
this month's Sweet Heat challenge is Mexican food I couldn't resist
making and sharing with you my favourite spicy salsa. And to really
mark the occasion and change things up a bit I decided it was finally
time to give the good old habanero (Scotch Bonnet) a go to really amp
up the heat level! With or without the scotch bonnet this really is a
fantastic salsa for those of you that like some heat but if you
prefer a less intense heat then use Serrano, Jalapenos or whatever
you can gets your hands on to add some spice – and if you don't
like spicy food simply miss the chillies out all together and you
will still have a delicious, roasted pepper and tomato salsa.

Thanks
to a recipe by Thomasina Miers I now roast my tomatoes and garlic in
a dry frying pan until they get nice and charred which adds a further
dimension to this flavour combination. If you like you could also
char them on the barbecue or if you are short of time you can miss
that step out but I do recommend giving it a go.

I
literally could just sit and eat an entire bowlful of this salsa as
it is so refreshing and packed with so much flavour and even better,
it's pretty healthy too! Perfect with tortilla chips, or as a spicy
salsa to serve with tacos, nachos or even as a side with some grilled
chicken or fish, whatever you serve it with this will be a hit!

Heat a
frying pan then add the whole tomatoes and the garlic clove and roast
until charred, blistered and starting to soften (the garlic will take
less time than the tomatoes, so just remove that early). Remove from
the skin from the garlic and pop into the bowl of a food processor.

Add
the roasted peppers, tomatoes, chilli(e)s, lime zest and juice and
coriander stalks in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until its
pureed. Season with salt and pepper then taste and add more lime
juice if needed. Add the coriander leaves and the olive oil and pulse
so the coriander is just roughly chopped up. Taste again to check the
seasoning then transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

*Of
course as can always be the way with chillies, my entry into
habanero/Scotch Bonnet territory wasn't nearly as daunting as I
imagined. Some times they can blow your head off (even a humble
little jalapeno can take you by surprise some days!) and other times
they just kind of dance around in the background, just enough to let
you know they are there without overpowering. This occasion was just
that and although I did remove the seeds and stem, I ended up adding
2 Habaneros/ Scotch Bonnets to get the taste I wanted and even then
it wasn't nearly as hot as I had imagined.....in fact it turned just
perfect...Hot enough to make my nose run a little, but not so hot my
mouth was hurting!! ; )